Hukay

50 Guiebcorrals vulnerable to theft; fish cages, increasingly popular amongentrepreneurs in the island, have become targets of poachers as well.Thieves strike at the moment an owner lets his guard down. Theft is doneunderwater. Thieves usually slash the submerged nets of the collectionchambers, and scoop the catch or let the fish swim to their nets. In mostcases, not all the fish are collected, in order to escape notice. During thefieldwork, three incidents of poaching on fish corrals and cages werereported in Batasan. No one was apprehended as owners failed toidentify perpetrators of these thefts. Our diving team was requested twiceby owners to inspect the corral’s or cage’s collection chambers for anydamage in the submerged nets.One alleged poaching incident in August 1990 turned violent,leading to the killing of the suspected thief and another member of hisfamily. 12 The case involved two families who are distant relatives. FamilyX found out that someone had slashed the net of the chamber of their fishcorral. They suspected a member of Family Y of being the perpetrator ofthe theft. The suspect was once apprehended for illegal fishing by a son ofthe household head of Family X, who was a fish warden deputised by themunicipal fisheries office. Family X suspected that revenge by Family Ycould have been the motive behind the theft. On their way home afterinspecting their fish corral, the fish warden, his father and two brothersran into an uncle of the suspect, who teased the four for openly carrying ashotgun. The remark infuriated one of the brothers of the fish warden.Tempers flared, and a verbal tussle ensued. Fearing for his life, thesuspect’s uncle ran away, but one of the brothers of the fish wardencaught up with him, and shot him in the chest. Meanwhile, the suspect,who had received the news about the shooting, lay in wait for the four,ready with his fish blasting device, but missed his target when theypassed by him. He ran inside his house, picked up a knife and woundedthe fish warden who had run after him. The fish warden, younger andstronger, was able to grab the knife from the suspect, and stabbed himseveral times in the stomach. It was only then that neighbours were ableto intervene in the scuffle. Two members of Family Y—the suspect and hisuncle—died a gruesome death at the hands of Family X. Those involvedin the crime served their sentence, but Family Y believes that thepunishment was not enough to repair the wrong committed by distantrelatives.12Because of the sensitive nature of the case, I am withholding the identity of myinformants and the parties involved in this incident.